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Hi, I come from a family that has a combined income of $200,000, yet they are not willing to pay much for my college education (despite my good stats. Would I be able to qualify for financial aid? If so, how much?

Thanks, your time is greatly appreciated

By Calmom (Calmom) on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 03:10 am: Edit

David, unless there are extraordinary circumstances, you are unlikely to qualify for need-based financial aid with that family income. I assume that by "combined income" you mean both parents, and that your parents are together. (A child of divorced parents might qualify, if the custodial parent did not make that much, and the non-custodial parent with the higher income had a lot of other obligations.)

Unfortunately, most colleges premise financial aid on the assumption that parents should pay, whether or not they actually will pay. If you know that your parents are not willing to pay much, your best option would be to focus your attention on colleges where you have a good chance of getting substantial merit aid.

By David Guzman on Thursday, August 15, 2002 - 12:45 am: Edit

Thank You very much Calmom for you time and consideration.

By rusty rooter on Saturday, August 24, 2002 - 09:38 am: Edit

calmom is correct. focus on merit aide and in-state public ivies.

By monica on Wednesday, October 02, 2002 - 12:54 am: Edit

what about $100,000 ?

By monica on Wednesday, October 02, 2002 - 07:13 pm: Edit

bump

By Dadster on Wednesday, October 02, 2002 - 08:00 pm: Edit

Monica, families DO get aid with $100K incomes, but typically they have one or more of the following characteristics:
1) Very high cost college
2) Few assets (which also raise the EFC)
3) Multiple students in college

Note that even if you don't expect to receive a need-base award, sometimes schools require you to apply for financial aid in order to be considered for merit awards.

By Alexz (Alexz) on Thursday, October 03, 2002 - 10:31 pm: Edit

I have a very similar question- my parents make 100K total, but i am hoping to receive some sort of financial aid...
The deal is that although that is a pretty hefty sum, my family has only been in America about 5 years, and my parents have only been making that much for the last year. Because of our relatively short stay in this country, they havent been able to amass much money, especially since they have to take care of both my grandmas and my mom's uncle(both grandmas live in Ukraine and get a pension from the government that's about half of their appartment rent, both are widows, my mom's uncle has a severe case of diabetes,and his medication costs about $200 a month, which he, a 70-year old man who gets a $40/month pension obviously cannot pay), and we live in a rather high cost neighborhood on long island, where my sister's daycare costs about 8k/year.
On the other hand, my parents made a good investment with our house, which they bought two years ago, and since then it has grown about 100 thousand dollars in value (property costs have increased 60 per cent in our area) which caused us to have a sort of "unintended" home equity.
However, our house was in pretty bad shape so now my parents took out a 90k home equity loan to fix it up (it was not very liveable when we bought it). However, one of the agreements for the loan was that all the money HAS to be spent on home improvement, since it is basically the value of our home anyway. I know that many colleges disregard the first 100 thousand dollars of home equity or so, but would this loan qualify? my parents thought they would have the money spent by this time, but the construction was delayed, so now they have 90k in the bank, but it's isnt as though they can go out and buy a benz with that.
So what my question was that would colleges consider that loan to be the same as home equity, since it cannot be used to pay for college? or would they say that money is money? And also, do i have a good shot at need-based aid based on my stats?
Thanks in advance,
alex

By Calmom (Calmom) on Monday, October 07, 2002 - 04:03 am: Edit

Alex,
A loan is not income or an asset; it is a debt.

A home equity loan would reduce the value of the asset. So if your parents have a house that is worth $200,000 and there is a $90k home equity loan, then the value of the house would be $110K (or less, as you would also subtract out whatever is owing on the first mortgage.)

If your parents have a home equity line of credit, then you simply subtract out whatever they owe from the home value to arrive at equity.

If your parents took the money from the home equity loan and put it in the bank, but have not spent it yet, I'd suggest that they go ahead before the end of the year and make whatever arrangments they plan to with contractors to work on the home improvements. If you are worried that the money for home improvements will be mistakenly seen as an asset, it can probably be placed in an escrow account specifically set up to pay the contractors when the work is completed.

By L L Short on Monday, December 02, 2002 - 06:11 am: Edit

I am a single parent, with no help from my childs father,recently unemployed. Even employed I make about $30,000. My question is I have been renting a house from family and we are thinking about refinancing. If I were on the loan as a co-owner, would this affect financial aid for my daughter? She is a senior this year and has started applying to schools.

By Calmom (Calmom) on Tuesday, December 03, 2002 - 02:06 am: Edit

If you are on the DEED as a co-owner, then you will have to report your share of the equity in the house as an asset to any private college that uses the CSS Profile, and if the house is worth a lot, that could reduce eligibility for financial aid. If you merely co-sign a note on the property (making you liable for the debt, without an ownership interest in the house), then it wouldn't effect financial aid eligibility. If your family is interested in giving you an ownership interest in the house, talk to a lawyer about various options for meeting that goal, without immediately transferring title to you.

By Svrstrms (Svrstrms) on Tuesday, January 14, 2003 - 01:15 pm: Edit

Hi. What is the maximum income for a family of 2? Is $25,000 too much too qualify for full pell grant benefits? If so what is the Maximum? Thank you for any help.

By JSwanzzz on Wednesday, January 15, 2003 - 10:30 pm: Edit

My dad makes $150,000 a year...lots of assets...no financial aid for me